Some 5,000 people attended a march Dec. 7 in Tel Aviv to mark International Human Rights Day, raising demands for civil liberties in Israel, for workers rights, against the effects on workers of the rising cost of living, for national rights of Palestinians in and outside Israel, for women’s rights, and the rights of immigrant workers, especially Black workers from Africa.

“There are people here from all kinds of places, but we are all united by the battle for basic rights,” Dawit Demoz, an Eritrean asylum seeker, told Ynetnews.com. “The government in Israel treats us like criminals.”

“I felt it was important for me to attend and represent Arab women, whose rights are violated over and over,” said Waffa Tiara of the Maan Workers Advice Center, adding that joblessness among Arab women is 83 percent.

“Society infringes on women’s rights—and it doesn’t make a difference whether they are Jewish, Muslim or Christian, and we are Israeli or Palestinian, Ashkenazi or Sephardi,” Sammi Michael, president of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, told the rally.

—JOHN STUDER